More than £40million has been earmarked to be spent on new capital projects by the Isle of Wight Council in the next year.
The projects, which range from major investment in affordable housing to pump-prime funding for a new cultural centre as part of the regeneration of Newport Harbour, are detailed in budget papers published this week.
The Island’s urgent housing crisis sets the agenda for the capital programme with the council proposing to allocate £29million to deliver genuinely affordable homes, at cost to the taxpayer. Nearly £2.5million will be allocated to providing the start-up capital necessary for a council-owned housing company — providing for local people — to become operational.
Elsewhere, more than £1.5million is proposed to be invested in adult social care with £1.4million to improve the availability of independent living flats for those who need high levels of support. To help Island householders and tenants with disabilities to remain in their homes, a further £708,000 in improvement grants will also be set aside.
In education, the new £4.9million primary school in the West Wight will open in January 2023 and almost £9million will be spent in refurbishing and remodelling The Bay School (secondary site) by October 2022. Other substantial works will be completed at Newchurch Primary School and Medina House School this summer.
There are also major enhancements proposed for Shanklin’s cliff lift, with £170,000 set to be invested in painting the lift shaft and replacing the lower canopy to ensure its long-term future.
The council also plans to spend £3million on infrastructure and transport including upgrades to junction at Blackwater and Whippingham. Around £75,000 has been ringfenced to repair and reinstate footpaths and other rights of way damaged during last summer’s floods.
Further significant sums are committed to a wide range of projects to improve the lives of Islanders, both at home and in the community. However, it comes at a cost as Council Tax will rise by 2.99% – plus town/parish council precept, Police and fire precepts.
Just build another hospital and stop wasting cash on useless projects like regenerating Newport harbour, why? Not much point really. Sort out the important things first.
So they put the council tax up ??? Does not make sense… That 40 million actually belongs to the public !!
clearly all the councillors are out of their depth and not suitable for the roles they inhabit.
£40m should not be spent on anything like this.
Housing should not be built on the island as the roads, the Dr’s, the dentists, the schools and the sewage/water systems cannot cope and there is no scope to build roads on greenfields and quite rightly so.
The council should be allocating the money they receive from government and council taxpayers on providing the services the island needs, not wasting it on speculative gambling in stock market related investments, or white elephant building projects. That belongs in the private sector.
Wow, they must have spent a small fortune of new schools over here in recent years, and still going strong.
We must be in for a bonanza when all the kids have got new schools.
Just as the price cap goes up the chancellor says we can have £200 of our council tax back, which we will have to pay back, then our own council grab that back by putting the precept up by 3%, so what does the working person get again? Nothing except shafted, signing on looks more appealing evey year.
Literally unbelievable. My favourite one is where the council are using £2.5m of our money (without our permission/consultation etc of course) to set up a “council owned housing company”. Do they really take us for fools? I wonder which of the councillors will be on the payroll of that one. wink wink.
Affordable housing for rent sounds fair. Not free housing, paid for by council tax payers.
Upgrades to more road junctions. Will that just mean wasting money and increased congestion like St Marys roundabout.